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An angry Chief Bill Blair is slamming his own officers for “totally unacceptable behaviour,” including turning off dashboard cameras, being untruthful in court and racist remarks.

A video of Blair’s message, shown to the Star by a police source, was sent to 8,000 members of the Toronto Police force late Monday through the organization’s intranet. Earlier in the day, Blair personally addressed senior officers and reportedly went even further than he did on the video.

“The message was received loud and clear,” a source told the Star of that meeting, noting concrete steps will follow in coming weeks.

Nothing in the chief’s previous public comments compares to the message he is now sending his own people. It comes on the heels of examples that have come to light in the past several weeks of what Blair calls “behaviour which undermines public confidence and public trust in us.”

Though the blunt message was sent to his members, it was also clearly meant to be heard by the citizens of Toronto.

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“If you want to be an idiot, you don’t get to be an idiot in our uniform, you don’t get to be an idiot diminishing our organization and you cannot hide behind the badge to abuse the authority so carefully earned and so carefully used by all of us,” Blair says at one point.

Included in his video message — which runs about five minutes and shows Blair in full uniform, set against a dark background and speaking directly to the camera — are two short video clips that make examples of individual officers on the force. It’s the first time the chief has used video in such a fashion.

The first clip was captured on a police dashboard camera three years ago, and shows Const. Christian Dobbs repeatedly striking Toronto cook Raymond Costain, who is face down and hidden from view, in front of the King Edward hotel.

Earlier this month, a judge stayed impaired driving charges against Costain, and ruled police used excessive force and seemed “indifferent to the truth” while testifying. Provincial court Justice Ford Clements also found that two officers, in an attempted cover-up, turned off their cruiser cameras. Blair and the province’s police watchdog have both ordered separate probes of the incident.

The second clip was not shown to a reporter Monday because the matter is apparently “in the courts,” but reportedly shows a group of officers using “sexist, racist and profane language,” according to a source. The officers weren’t accompanied by any civilians at the time.

“The problem with these video clips is not that they were captured on video,” Blair says in the message. “The problem lies in the behaviour. It’s the behaviour which damages our service; it’s the behaviour that damages your relationship with the people of Toronto.”

The chief also addressed other examples of misconduct by Toronto police, both past and recent.

Pay duty police officers who park their private cars illegally and put a police vest over the front seat to avoid a ticket demonstrate “a totally unacceptable sense of arrogance and entitlement that causes the people of this city to wonder what kind of people are serving them,” says Blair.

When officers are “perhaps not telling the full truth in court,” or making an effort to cover up bad behaviour by removing a name tag, “it can only send a message to the public that we are not proud of what we are doing,” he says.

A Star investigation last year revealed more than 100 cases of police deception in courts in Ontario and across the country. Provincial Attorney General John Gerretsen moved swiftly, probed the problem and created a new policy requiring Crown attorneys to report cases where they believe police officers have lied under oath.

Just last week, a judge acquitted a man he believed was probably holding thousands of dollars of crystal meth, in large part because of “troubling” inconsistencies in the testimony of the lead officer in the case.

“I know, like me, when you see examples of police officers conducting themselves in a way which is totally unacceptable, inconsistent with our values, our honour, our reputation and our relationship with the public, I know it makes you angry because it makes me angry,” says Blair, who began his message with an acknowledgment that every day countless police put themselves at risk and reach out to members of the community, helping young kids, the poor, homeless and victims of crime.

“I don’t like having to explain to my family, my friends and my neighbours why some individuals, who are members of my service, would conduct themselves in this way . . . They do not reflect who we are.”

He goes on to say that, as chief, the buck stops with him, and that he’s prepared to hold his men and women accountable for their actions. He goes further, though, prodding officers to speak up when they see others abusing their authority. “You have a responsibility to say ‘That’s not consistent with my values, that’s not the police service I want to belong to,’” he says, adding that while supervisors and unit commanders have their own special roles, the duty lies with all members, regardless of their rank.

“We are the victims of their ignorance and I want the people in our organization who believe that they are somehow entitled to abuse the authority so carefully earned by all of us, they have no right to do that,” he says.

“It’s the behaviour we all have to stand up to, and if we do that we will truly be worthy of the trust that people have put in us.”

While it’s unclear what concrete steps will follow Blair’s words, a source said, “This is a clear message that those who think we don’t get it, we get it.”

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